Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2001 18:38:28 -0000
From: Tim
Subject: Powers Within 5 (Revised)
Hello! I know it's taken me a long time. But I said that it was
going to because of the phenomenal amount of work that I've
got to do this year. Don't blame me! I thought that I'd keep
the notes short so that you can get to the story quicker.
Anyway, let me know what you think yadayada.
power@utvinternet.ie.
This story is not real. The characters are not real.
This author does not know the actual sexualities of the named
(and shamed) celebrities. If you're too young then you're too
young.
-------------------------
/ Come to the council chambers *immediately*. /
Blasted Baram's mind voice loudly, indicating a sense of
urgency that I'd never heard from her before. From the echoes
I knew that she was speaking to at least one other person, and
if I'd time, I could have figured out who it was.
"I've got to go Mum." I said, already heading
towards the door of her new apartment in the mountain.
"What? Why?" Protested my mother.
"I don't know. But it's urgent." I replied, already out
the door and about to close it behind me. I closed the door,
looked around and saw that, even though the crowds were
dispersing, it was still going to be a job getting to main
hallway. I changed into my black robes and instinctively the
crowd changed, many more heads turned my way, it wasn't
often that you saw a black-robed mage after all, but they also,
almost unconsciously got out of my way. I made my way to
the main hallway, where I thought that I'd be able to fly, but I
saw that the mages had succeeded in creating the second floor
and I was cut off from going upwards.
In a second Justin joined me, standing by my side.
"She called you to?" He asked.
"Yes." I said, nothing more needed to be said.
"Get out of the way!" Bellowed Justin, a spell
making his voice powerful and imposing. Many people looked
over, clearly about to give Justin a piece of their minds, but
seeing a red-robed mage, almost glowing with power, deterred
them from that. They pulled apart, leaving enough space for
the two of us to stride down. The sense of urgency grew and
we started going more quickly, until we were both running,
getting faster and faster until we reached the imposing doors
of the Elder Hall. I wrenched them open with a look and,
ignoring the doorkeeper, we stopped in front of the dais where
all but one of the members of the council were sitting. Lamurk
was the missing one; he was the main authority on the lore of
the white mages, and an invaluable help.
"There's no time for formalities." Said Baram
crisply. "As you can see Lamurk isn't here. He went to get his
family, and while at home they were attacked by daemons. He
managed to get out a partial message, nothing more." Baram
telepathically sent me information about where he lived.
"Everyone else is busy with various things, including the rest
of the NSync group, you're the two most powerful mages that
we have available right now. See what you can do." Finished
Baram.
Both Justin and I nodded curtly and left the elder hall
as quickly as possible. I was wondering what the others were
up to, while Justin cleared the way for us as quickly as he had
a couple of minutes ago. We managed to get out to the
mountainside, and then Justin said the teleportation spell.
"Why are we here?" I asked. We were back at our
house.
"Because, we need to get our Battle Robes."
Explained Justin.
"Right." I said, rushing for the stairs. Unlike ordinary
clothes, the Battle Robes couldn't be magicked onto you
because of the spells and runes that were impregnated into the
fabric. We grabbed them from the wardrobes and slipped them
on, the runes on mine shining brightly and then returning to
normal, however the ones on Justin's robe extinguished
themselves.
"Tom! There's something wrong with my robe!" He
exclaimed.
I realised quickly what the problem was. "That's not
what's wrong! It's your power, you've got to get a new robe
for the black-levelled power that you've got!"
"Damn! What am I going to do now?!" Said Justin.
"Here." I said, taking mine back off. "Take this." I
handed him my robe. It wouldn't work quite as well for him as
it would for me, but it was better then nothing.
"What are you going to do?" Said Justin, pushing the
robe back towards me.
"My magic is more powerful then yours, and I'm
used to it too. I'll be safer without one then you'll be."
Justin acceded to my arguments and donned the robe.
As soon as he had I grabbed his arm and teleported the two of
us to where Baram had shown me.
Lamurk wasn't in anyway a fighting mage, in fact by
most standards he wouldn't even be considered a very
powerful mage, but from what I saw he was doing very well.
A thirty-foot tall creature stood over the house, battering on
the shields that were obviously weakening. The creature
appeared to be made of black slime that was continuously
dripping off him. Whenever these drops touched something
living they seemed to drain the life from it. At the moment the
creature was in roughly human form, but that looked as if it
could change quickly into something else.
I looked over at Justin and guessed that the horrified
look on his face was a mirror of mine. "What do you say we
draw some attention this way?" I asked.
"What do you suggest?" He responded.
"A good old fireball." I said, extending my hand, but
it wasn't any normal fireball that I made. Normally, when you
were fighting you didn't have time to do what I was doing
right now, but I made an exception. The fireball started off as
the size of a football, then increased to the size of a beach ball.
After that I had to raise it over my head so that it wouldn't
burn me, using both hands to prop it up. When it was as big as
I could make it without dropping it I hurled it at the creature
which was still ignoring us.
The fireball impacted against its torso and it roared in
pain, turning towards us.
"I think we got its' attention." I said, floating gently
up from the ground, still not sure what to do next.
"I think you're right." Shouted Justin over the gale
force winds that he was mustering around himself. The
creature took an unsteady step towards us, then another,
speeding up as it strode shakily towards us.
/ It doesn't seem to be very steady on its' feet. / I said
to Justin mind to mind - the wind to strong to shout over
without a spell.
/ I'll see if I can use that to our advantage. / Said
Justin back. He raised an arm, pointing towards the beast's
right leg and the wind hurtled towards it. After a second of
pushing the leg split apart and reformed around the cone of
wind that Justin was pushing towards it. Justin and I
exchanged glances. I rose higher in the air and hurled
lightening down upon the tar-like creature below. All that
happened was that a couple more dropped of the life-sapping
fluid dripped of the thing, killing whatever it touched on the
ground.
Justin narrowed his eyes and shot beams of energy at
it, to no effect.
As far as I could tell the creature couldn't use any
magic of its' own, but I got the impression that to be touched
by it would mean death. I put my hands together, as if holding
a sword hilt and gradually, particles of magic condensed out of
the air and formed the shaped of a sword, eight-foot long and
wielded by me. I darted in at the creature and started slashing
at him, always moving out of range again before he could hit
me. Quickly glancing back I saw Justin take up the idea and
form his own blade, copying my actions of darting in and out
to slash at it. It screamed and roared, but didn't seem to be
dying.
I looked over at Justin and shouted his name, at the
same instant telepathically communicating what I wanted to
do. He nodded in agreement and both our blades dissolved
into nothingness. We both stretched out a hand to one another
and a line of magic formed between our hands, with the same
cutting power that our swords had had. We rushed towards the
thing, slicing of its' head. When I looked back towards it I saw
that the head had managed to reattach itself to the body.
"No no no!" Shouted Lamurk, who'd just run out of
his house. "You've got it all wrong! It feeds on power. You're
just making it stronger by attacking it with magic!"
"What will we do then?" I shouted back, frustrated
by our lack of progress.
"You're going to have to use your telekinetic abilities
to hurl stones, rocks, and anything else that you can at the
creature, beat it down that way. And use *nothing* magical, or
alive!"
"Great." I mumbled. "A magical creature that can't
be destroyed by magic." I gently landed about forty feet from
it and gripped my mind around as many loose rocks and stones
as I could. Enhancing my voice with magic I shouted to get
its' attention. But without us using magic to annoy it, the
creature simply transferred its' attention back to the house.
"Screw it." I muttered, and the hail of stones rose off the
ground all around me. Focusing my attention on the creature, I
flung them as hard as I could towards it.
When they impacted they made a sound like stones
hitting into mud, and when it roared in pain this time it was
like nothing I'd ever heard before. I shielded myself against
the sound quickly enough and saw Justin doing the same, but
Lamurk wasn't able to and he feel to his knees covering his
ears with his hands.
I looked back at the beast, most of the wounds had
sealed over, but some of the larger ones were still open. I
groped around with my mind, trying to find any other rocks
that I could throw at it. Finally I resorted to wrenching them
out of the ground and hurtling them towards it. During this,
Justin was helpless because he didn't have any telekinetic
abilities. So he went over to Lamurk and shielded him against
the noise the thing was making. Eventually it dissolved into a
puddle of black liquid on the ground, made uneven only by the
rocks that were strewn about. I gently pulled the rocks out and
put them back where they belonged.
Justin pulled the ground apart and the puddle fell
deep inside the earth, then Justin sealed it back up again.
Lamurk got up off the ground. "Thank you." He said,
stiffly. I had to remind myself that he was a council member,
and was probably ashamed of the fact that he had to be helped
like that.
"You're welcome. Are you ready to go yet, because
Justin and I should wait here until you are." I said.
"That would be helpful, I believe that the family is
packed, but I'm sure that there'll be any number of last
minutes details." He said, grinning ruefully.
I laughed. "I'm sure there will be." I slipped my hand
into Justin's. "I think that we'll just walk around here until
you're ready, if that's ok." I said.
"Sure, that'll be fine. I'll let you know when we're
going." He said, turning and heading back into the house.
"That was interesting." I said, once we were alone.
"You could say that." Said Justin. "But sort of
creature isn't affected by magic? That's just dangerous. I
mean, what would we have done if you weren't able to do
telekinesis?"
"We would have thrown the rocks at it until it died,
and you know that." I replied.
"Yeah, but that would have been so much work..."
We reached the top of a small hillock and were able
to see the full glory of the view around the house. I whistled in
appreciation. "It's beautiful." Mountains surrounded a small
sunken, hanging valley, and then, under it was a waterfall,
with a river flowing through a valley below, overflowing with
trees and various other types of flora and fauna.
"I want to live somewhere like this." Sighed Justin,
putting his head on my shoulder.
I laughed softly. "We just bought a house, and you
want to move?"
"I was just saying that I'd like to live somewhere like
this." Said Justin. "I didn't say that I wanted to move."
"Hmmm." I said. We sat there for a couple of
minutes, just enjoying the view, until I heard Lamurk walking
up behind us.
"We're ready to go, if you are." He said.
"Certainly." I said, jumping to my feet. "You've
really got a beautiful view here."
"Yes... unfortunately over the years we've perhaps
become too used to it, and we don't appreciate it the way we
used to, but it still is beautiful." He commented.
We got to the house, were his wife, whom I
recognised and two children who I'd never seen before,
surrounded by bags. Lamurk put his hand on the door and
incited a couple of protection spells, and then he said the
teleportation spell and opened a window in the air, which we
all walked through.
-------------------------
"I wonder where the others are." Said Justin, after
looking around for JC and the rest without success.
"Don't worry about it." I replied. "You know as well
as I do that they can take care of themselves."
"Yeah, but there's that new thing hanging around..."
I laughed. "Justin, you are the only person I know
who could describe an ancient evil as 'hanging around'."
"That's why you love me." He said, casually
shrugging his shoulders.
I pulled him towards me and kissed him. "It's not the
only reason." I said.
-------------------------
"What happened to you?!" I exclaimed. Baram had
summoned us to the Council Chamber, where we'd found the
rest of *NSync standing in a bedraggled state.
"They were fighting a daemon similar to the one that
you were up against Tom, only theirs had already ingested a
huge amount of power."
"What! I've never heard of these things before a
suddenly there are two of them at the same time? What are the
chances of that happening?" I asked.
"Not very high." We'd like you to go out and see if
you can find anymore of these things. We're not asking you to
fight them, unless you've got to, just see if there are any others
around the place."
"By myself?" I asked.
"Yes, unless you're got a problem with that."
"No problem, I was just clarifying." I said.
"Alright."
I took that as my dismissal and left, heading straight
out to the main exit and hurtling into the air, I began spiralling
outwards from the mountain, making sure to cover all the area
around it, using my magical sense both to guide me and to find
out if there was anything odd going on below me, normally
there was nothing much evil going on in Ireland. Especially
now with the huge number of mages present. There was
nothing in the UK either, aside from a small vampire nest in
Manchester. By the time I'd gotten to France I was getting
bored with it, but determined to go on when I felt something
below me. The closest way of describing it would be a small
candle flame blowing in the wind, almost being put out, but
not quite. The only difference was that this wasn't fire, it was
a white mages power, and it meant that they were in serious
trouble!
I swooped down to the ground, trying to find the
person who was clearly in so much trouble. Finally I found
them in a scorched hollow in the ground. They looked up at
me and I found myself looking into the tear stained eyes of a
woman. I gently dropped down beside her and surrounded us
with a shield to protect her from the wind and rain.
"Can you hear me?" I asked.
She feebly nodded her head.
I scanned her quickly and repaired some of the
damage done, including burning off the infections that were
attacking her. "Can you speak now?"
"Yes." She whispered.
"I'll bring you back to the Mountain, don't worry.
Who are you?"
"I'm Angela." She coughed. "Angela Basset."
The name didn't ring a bell, and through her
weakness she must have realised it because she laughed dryly.
"Don't recognise the name eh? Not surprising. How
about this name - JC Chasez. He's my boyfriend."
-------------------------
There you go! I know it took ages to get out, but now
you've got it and that's that. Write to me, because if you don't
then shots will be fired, possibly in your direction!
power@utvinternet.ie
Tim.